Google I/O 2016: What key announcements to expect from the event with complete schedule

Google CEO Sundar Pichai at an annual developer’s conference in San Francisco California, May 2015Getty Images

The Google I/O 2016 dates were announced way back in January with the registrations kicking off by March, but the schedule of the conference has just recently been unveiled. The biggest giveaway the schedule has is the Virtual Reality (VR) the event is set to feature.

The full schedule has been listed by the company on the exclusive website created by Google. To check the entire schedule in detail with the speakers and topics click on the links below:

As you can see, seven sessions have been exclusively dedicated to virtual or augmented reality with the most highlighted one being "Google's Vision for VR." The session has been described as "What we have built, what we have learned, and where we are headed." Clay Bavor, the head of Google's new Virtual Reality division, will lead this talk.

Then there are many app-based sessions like, "Great libraries and tools for great Progressive Web Apps" and "Streaming media with ExoPlayer." A number of Android related sessions are also being hosted like "Android Auto for everyone", "Android battery and memory optimisations" and " Android application architecture: Get ready for the next billion!"

Apart from these, some key announcements from the company's CEO Sundar Pichai at the keynote address, which will open the conference on 18 May, can be expected. Here are our predictions on what to expect:

VR: Expect a lot of VR announcements from the conference but most tipsters say Google may be working on a mashup of Tango and Cardboard called Cardboard++. Some rumours also suggest that Google will be releasing a Samsung Gear VR-like headset at the event given it has made much progress in YouTube support for VR content.

Self Driving Car: As The Verge had earlier reported that the proposed location shift back from San Francisco to Mountain View may be due to Google considering the location convenient to unveil or demonstrate its fleet of self-driving automobiles. We do know that the company has been working on this project for a while now but no official unveiling has been made yet.

Android N: Sadly, we do not expect any major showcase in this department as Google has already unveiled a timeline for all the testing phases for the Android N. However, there may be a possibility that we finally get to know the launch date for the upcoming OS or even better the expansion of what 'N' stands for.

Project Aura: Better known as the Google Glass 2.0 development, the company may just showcase an initial render of the smart glass. Aura is supposedly the Enterprise Edition that recently showed up in FCC documents, showing a slightly revised design with a hinge and larger prism.

Project Tango: The Project Tango smartphone was unveiled privately at MWC 2016, so it is expected that it will get a much bigger exposure at the I/O as the official announcement of the Google/Lenovo partnered device said the device would be available in the "summer of 2016". A lot of sessions have been dedicated to Project Tango as well.

Android Wear: Although the latest Marshmallow-based 1.4 version of Android Wear hit smartwatches recently, it has been long since an overhaul happened to the watch OS. At the event we may see some major upgrades brought to the platform possibly another Android Wear update.